Am I doing a good or bad job? First corals

[Rscott]

So I recently purchased my first 2 frags

They were dipped with coral RX and revive and have been in my qt system for 2 weeks

Getting reef foods every three days

I will post the pictures like an in order time lapse

The cyphastrea seems to be getting green which I hear is good. I read they turn crappy brown when unhappy like when I first got it

The Favia I dunno????

I have not seen it’s feeders out for a while

The green spots seem to have gotten smaller?

20 gallon qt
Hang on the back filter
20 pounds of rock
Water comes from my DT
18” t8 50/50 bulb 12 hours a day on

Here we go in order



Few days later smaller green spots??
Cyphastrea greener?


Much greener on cyphastrea Favia I dunno??

 

[Fishboyz]

They are definitely very stressed. Did you light acclimate them to your quarantine tank? If your LFS kept them in lower lights (which Favia and Cyphastrea tend to thrive in) they might have been a bit shocked by your sudden higher intensity light. I always dip my frags but bever have I quarantined them, but I probably should. In my case I always end up stressing the coral out more when quarantining. Adjust your light, it being a 20 gallon might make it so the light is too close. Never give up on your frags! Thet could pull through! Good luck man

 

[Rscott]

Well this isn’t good news
I thought the cyphastrea turning green from brown was good
The light is only a T8 single bulb
How can it be getting to much light?

I didn’t really light acclimate it given it’s a T8. It’s not like I can put it on low.
Wondering if I should put them in the DT

They are already on the bottom of the QT
Maybe I should reduce the light
The QT has no fish no ammonia nitrite and narrates if 10 ish
It gets 5 gallons of fresh salt water every two weeks

 

[Fishboyz]

Well this isn’t good news
I thought the cyphastrea turning green from brown was good
The light is only a T8 single bulb
How can it be getting to much light?

I didn’t really light acclimate it given it’s a T8. It’s not like I can put it on low.
Wondering if I should put them in the DT

They are already on the bottom of the QT
Maybe I should reduce the light
The QT has no fish no ammonia nitrite and narrates if 10 ish
It gets 5 gallons of fresh salt water every two weeks

I would say the Cyphastrea turning green from brown is great news, probably stressed out about the sudden light change but starting to settle in. I have my Cyphastrea at the very very bottom of my 125 gallon. I'm running some Current LEDs with a Blue LED strip for extra color. I don't have to much experience with Favia but we tend the keep them away from high intensity lights. Do you have any way to measure your par? From what I've seen aquarists tend to give corals to much light instead of enough, but all corals are different. All I can say is don't lose hope.

 

[Rscott]

Anyone else with some ideas

 

[ScottR]

How close are they to the light? In inches? It doesn’t matter if it’s only a single bulb. Generally cyphastrea enjoy lower light. And how much flow in the tank?

 

[rodney]

Anyone else with some ideas

You could raise the bulb higher from the tank.

 

[Rscott]

So is everyone thinking I’m giving to much light?
They are probably 10 inches from the light

But recall it’s only a 20 breeder
The tank probably isn’t more then 14 inches maybe 16 inches deep

 

[Fishboyz]

So is everyone thinking I’m giving to much light?
They are probably 10 inches from the light

But recall it’s only a 20 breeder
The tank probably isn’t more then 14 inches maybe 16 inches deep

I have two 20 gallon breeders and one with some crappy LEDs on it. I ended up bleaching some of my mushrooms because they were either low light corals or came from a low light system and weren't correctly acclimated. It was an issue that took me a while to completely correct. Like others said you could try a lower intensity bulb or raise your light fixture. Tweak stuff and wait a bit for results. The worst thing you can do is change a bunch of stuff at once, you'll most likely stress your coral out more and not find the route of the issue.

 

[Rscott]

Thanks
It seems like everyone things light is the issue
Does the cyphastrea look bad also?
It seems to be doing its thing

I moved them
Both down to the bottom of the tank and fed them tonight

Tomorrow is 2 weeks in QT
Considering dipping them again tomorrow and putting them in the DT where I know the water is better and the light is more controlled with my kessil controller

Also to answer above question
The flow is just 1 hydor nano
240gph I think
It’s the smallest PH made I think

 

[Hermie]

I know this may not help much, but I destroyed the first cyphastrea (really was plesiastrea I think), chalice (oxypora) and anacropora I got. A favia too, and it's on a looooong road to recovery... but it's one of those things where once you go through the experience of acclimating them, you get better at it. It's hard to realize that the corals are just little layers of "tissue" on top of skeletons, so they can easily be killed by overdipping or temp swings, water quality... a lot of things.

You will get the hang of it, it looks like they are doing alright, the main thing is that you don't want them to be "getting worse" that's a bad sign because they can quickly fall of the edge.

 

[Hermie]

Thanks
It seems like everyone things light is the issue
Does the cyphastrea look bad also?
It seems to be doing its thing

I moved them
Both down to the bottom of the tank and fed them tonight

Tomorrow is 2 weeks in QT
Considering dipping them again tomorrow and putting them in the DT where I know the water is better and the light is more controlled with my kessil controller

Also to answer above question
The flow is just 1 hydor nano
240gph I think
It’s the smallest PH made I think

I've kept some corals in gnarly QTs (the lights literally a 3000K flood light) so they were in super low light. The main thing is stability in the tank (And no toxins). As long as they are in stable water parameters, they will survive and recover. The light is not as important as the water quality.